The subject of the invention is nucleotide sequences coding for polypeptides endowed with a larvicidal activity towards Lepidoptera.
It relates more particularly to agents, in particular nucleotide sequences, polypeptides or even vectors, or bacterial strains modified by these sequences and expressing polypeptides making it possible to prepare larvicidal compositions active against Lepidoptera, preferably against Spodoptera littoralis (hereafter S.littoralis) or Mamestra brassicae (hereafter designated by M.brassicae) or capable of transforming the plants to be treated in conferring on them this type of activity.
It is known that most of the isolates of B.thuringiensis show a toxic activity with regard to larvae of more than a hundred species of Lepidoptera.
This activity results from the capacity of the strains of B.thuringiensis to synthesize, at the moment of sporulation, crystalline inclusions of protein nature, or xcex4-endotoxins, under the control of one or several types of gene.
It has been shown that the activity of these polypeptides is contained in the NH2-terminal half or N-terminus of the protein.
The studies carried out have shown the high specificity of the xcex4-endotoxins towards larvae of a given species.
On account of this high specificity, many species of Lepidoptera, in particular of the family of the Noctuidae, react only weakly to commercial preparations of available B.thuringiensis. 
It is so in particular for the species S.littoralis, a poly-phagous insect which constitutes the principal parasite of cotton and other industrially important crops. Among these crops, mention should be made of maize, the castor oil plant, tobacco, the groundnut, fodder plants, such as clover or alfalfa, or also market garden produce such as the cabbage or the tomato.
Hence, one can imagine the interest of disposing of agents targeting specifically and effectively the family of the Noctuidae and in particular S.littoralis or M.brassicae. 
The genes for xcex4-endotoxins hitherto identified do not code for a polypeptide preferentially active with regard to S.littoralis. 
The search by the inventors for a sequence of nucleotides coding for a polypeptide preferably active against the Noctuidae, more especially against S.littoralis, has led them to study the natural isolates of two strains of B.thuringiensis, the larvicidal activity of which on S.littoralis appears to be higher than that of the industrial preparations made starting from other strains of B.thuringiensis. 
The species in question are aizawai 7-29 and entomocidus 6-01.
The study of these isolates has made it possible to demonstrate the existence of several genes for xcex4-endotoxins of different structures and different specificities, of which two genes preferentially active against P.brassicae but not very active against the Noctuida of cotton and a gene inactive against P.brassicae and S.littoralis. 
By studying the total DNA of these isolates and by carrying out appropriate hybridizations, followed by the cloning of the fragments identified by hybridization, the inventors have observed that it is possible to isolate nucleotide sequences implicated in genes for xcex4-endotoxins coding for polypeptides active, preferably, against S.littoralis. 
Thus, the aim of the invention is to provide nucleotide sequences capable of coding for at least the NH2-terminal part of a xcex4-endotoxin toxic against the Noctuidae and preferably against S.littoralis or M.brassicae. 
It also has the aim of providing a polypeptide toxic with regard to the Noctuidae.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a procedure for obtaining such a sequence and a polypeptide showing the desired activity as well as the intermediate agents such as vectors and bacterial strains which can be utilized for obtaining the polypeptide.
In addition, the invention relates to the uses of these sequences and polypeptides for the development of larvicidal compositions with regard to the Noctuidae, in particular S.littoralis and for the transformation of the plants likely to be infected by these larvae.
The invention relates to a sequence of nucleotides coding for at least a part of the N-terminal region of a polypeptide toxic specifically against the larvae of Lepidoptera of the Noctuidae family, and preferably against S.littoralis, characterized by its capacity of hybridization with a gene capable of expressing a polypeptide toxic towards larvae of S.littoralis. 
According to another aspect of the invention, the nucleotide sequence is characterized in that it is carried by a sequence of nucleotides of about 3 kb such as obtained by in vitro genetic recombination of sequences of nucleotides of B.thuringiensis capable of hybridizing with probes 1, 2 and 3 of pHTA2 shown in FIG. 2. The fragment of 3 kb corresponds more particularly to the restriction fragment HindIII-PstI.
The sequences of nucleotides of the invention are, in addition, characterized in that they contain sites in the following order: HindIII-HincII-BglII-KpnI-HindIII-PstI.
In a preferred manner, these sequences of nucleotides are obtained by in vitro genetic recombination of DNA sequences derived from at least one strain of B.thuringiensis. In a variant of the embodiment of the invention, two different strains of B.thuringiensis are utilized.
Strains of B.thuringiensis particularly suited for obtaining these sequences of nucleotides are the strains corresponding to aizawai 7-29 and entomocidus 6-01, deposited on Apr. 21, 1987 under the No. I-661 and No. I-660, respectively, with the National Collection of Cultures of Microorganisms (N.C.C.M.) in Paris.
In an advantageous manner, the sequences of nucleotides of the invention code, for a polypeptide capable of forming an immunological complex with antibodies directed against polypeptides showing the larvicidal activity with regard to S.littoralis. 
A sequence of nucleotides according to the invention is characterized in that it has the capacity to hybridize with a probe formed from the sequence (I) showing the following chain arrangement (nucleotides 52-990 of SEQ ID NO:1):
Sequences of nucleotides coding for at least a part of the N-terminal region of a polypeptide toxic specifically towards larvae of Lepidoptera of the Noctuidae family, and preferably towards S.littoralis, are characterized in that they contain the chain arrangement (I) defined above.
In an advantageous manner, the sequence of nucleotides characterized by the chain arrangement defined above codes for a part of a polypeptide having a higher larvicidal activity towards S.littoralis than that of the polypeptides encoded by natural isolates presently known for their effects against S.littoralis. 
The study of this sequence of nucleotides shows that it is characterized by an initiation codon ATG situated at position 241 starting from which an open reading frame of 750 nucleotides has been identified.
This sequence is also characterized by a GGAGG attachment site for ribosomes at positions 230 to 234.
According to another feature, the sequence of nucleotides of the invention is characterized in that it contains, upstream from the ATG codon, a sequence going from the nucleotide at position 137 to the nucleotide at position 177, strongly homologous with the region found by Wong et al. (1983) and described in (16) upstream from the gene for the crystal of the strain kurstaki HD1 Dipel (BTK) and for which the authors have shown that it contains three promoters BtI, BtII and Ec which are functional in B.thuringiensis and E.coli, respectively. The homology of these sequences is about 70%.
The invention also relates to a sequence of nucleotides coding for the following sequence (II) of amino acids (amino acids 1-250 SEQ ID NO:2):
A better identification of the sequence of nucleotides isolated from the above strains, deposited with the NCCM has made it possible to observe that the nucleotide situated at position 273 is guanine (G), the amino acid resulting from the GTA codon thus being valine.
Now, the reading of the nucleotide corresponding to this position 273 in the application FR.8708090 of Jun. 10, 1987 had led to reporting thymine (T) and leucine as amino acid resulting from the TTA codon.
Another sequence of nucleotides of the invention is characterized by its capacity of hybridization with a probe formed from the sequence (III) showing the following chain arrangement (SEQ ID NO:1):
In a distinctive manner, sequences of nucleotides of the invention coding for a polypeptide toxic specifically towards larvae of Lepidoptera of the Noctuidae family, and preferably toward S.littoralis comprise or are constituted by the chain arrangement (III) previously defined.
The chain arrangement (III), comprised in the sequence of nucleotides of the invention contains 2711 nucleotides. This fragment includes in particular the potential promoter of the gene of the xcex4-endotoxin active on S.littoralis. 
Sequences of nucleotides modified in relation to the chain arrangements (I) or (III) described above naturally enter into the framework of the present invention to the extent to which these modifications do not generate appreciable variations of the toxicity of the polypeptide coded by the modified sequence towards S.littoralis. 
These modifications may, for example, consist of deletions, substitutions, recombinations.
Thus, the sequences of nucleotides (I) and (III) contain at their position 611 a variable nucleotide corresponding to adenine (A) in the sequence (I) and to cytosine (C) in the sequence (III). These nucleotides enter into the composition of the respective codons GAA and GCA which code respectively for the amino acids glutamic acid (GLU) and alanine (ALA) in the respective sequences II and IV.
Similarly, any sequence of nucleotides which can hybridize with that of the chain arrangements (I) or (III) such as obtained by reverse enzymatic transformation of the corresponding RNA or even by chemical synthesis also enter into the framework of the definitions of the invention.
The sequence of nucleotides of formula (III) starts with a ATG initiation codon situated at position 241 and which represents the start of an open reading frame of 2470 nucleotides.
The invention also relates to a sequence of nucleotides characterized in that it codes for a polypeptide containing the sequence (IV) of amino acids below (SEQ ID NO:2):
The invention also relates to recombinant expression and cloning vectors comprising more particularly at least one sequence of nucleotides such as that defined above, in particular at least a part of the sequence of about 3 kb.
A specific recombinant vector is, for example, a plasmid containing the HindIII-PstI fragment of the sequence of nucleotides of the invention, inserted in a vector pUC9. A first preferred vector is the plasmid pHT71, the construction of which is reported in the assemblies below, which comprises a HindIII-PstI DNA fragment according to the invention constituted uniquely of DNA derived from the strain aizawai 7-29.
Another recombinant vector is constituted by the plasmid pHT 671, the construction of which is given in FIG. 4. This plasmid contains a chimeric HindIII-PstI fragment, obtained by fusing a HindIII-HindII fragment of 1.1 kb derived from the strain entomocidus 6-01 with a HincII-PstI fragment of 1.9 kb derived from the strain aizawai 7-29.
The modified bacterial strains which contain one of the nucleotide sequences defined above or also a recombinant expression vector and cloning previously defined, and preferably the plasmid pHT671 or the plasmid pHT71, also enter into the framework of the invention.
The invention also relates to a polypeptide toxic towards larvae of Lepidoptera and in a preferential manner towards S.littoralis, which attack cotton leaves or other crops such as those listed above, characterized in that it is capable of forming an immunological complex with antibodies directed against polypeptides with larvicidal activity towards S.littoralis. 
The invention relates more particularly to the NH2-terminal part of this polypeptide which contains the larvicidal activity.
The extremity of the active NH2-terminal part corresponds to the sequence (II) of amino acids given above.
A preferred polypeptide of the invention is that which corresponds to this sequence (II) and corresponds to the sequence (IV) of amino acids given in the preceding pages. This polypeptide corresponding to the sequence (IV) contains 823 amino acids. Its calculated molecular mass is 92906 Da.
This sequence of xcex4-endotoxin was compared with amino acid sequences of xcex4-endotoxins derived from other strains of B.thuringiensis active on the Lepidoptera and the genes of which have been isolated and sequenced previously: the xcex4-endotoxins in question are those of the strains kurstaki HD1 (19), kurstaki HD73 (20), berliner 1715 (21) and (22) Sotto (23) and aizawai IPL7 (24).
The results of these comparisons indicate that all are different in the second quarter of the molecule (amino acids 281 to 620) whereas the NH2-terminal part (amino acids 1 to 280) and the COOH-terminal domain (amino acids 621 to 1175) of the protein are highly conserved and differ only by several amino acids. On the other hand, the xcex4-endotoxin corresponding to the sequence (IV) above shows considerable differences from the other xcex4-endotoxins both in the NH2-terminal part (amino acids 1 to 280) and in the second quarter of the molecule (amino acids 281 to 620). The results of these comparisons indicate again that the NH2-terminal half of the molecule (amino acids 1 to 620) which corresponds to the toxic fraction of the protein only show 46% homology with the other xcex4-endotoxins. The most important differences are located in the second half of the toxic part of the molecule (amino acids 281 to 620) with only 36% of identical amino acids, the NH2-terminal part (amino acids 1 to 280) itself showing 58% of amino acids identical with the other xcex4-endotoxins. Such considerable differences have never been observed up to now in the NH2 terminal part of the toxic fraction of the molecule among the xcex4-endotoxins active on the Lepidoptera.
In order to obtain a sequence of nucleotides entering into the framework of the invention, coding for at least the active part of a polypeptide showing a specific toxicity towards larvae of Lepidoptera of the Noctuidae family, and preferably towards S.littoralis, recourse is had, in conformity with the invention, to the following steps, namely:
the carrying out of a molecular hybridization between, on the one hand, a nucleotide sequence of a strain of B.thuringiensis active against S.littoralis and, on the other, at least two nucleotide sequences, used as probes, derived from the 5xe2x80x2 part of a restriction fragment of a gene for xcex4-endotoxin of B.thuringiensis, this part coding for the NH2-terminal part of the polypeptide active on the larvae of Lepidoptera, and from the 3xe2x80x2 part of this fragment coding for the COOH part of the polypeptide,
the isolation of the hybrid fragment,
its cloning in a vector, followed by its purification.
In an advantageous manner, the hybridization probes utilized are obtained from a gene for the xcex4-endotoxin derived from the strain aizawai 7-29 coding for a protein of 130 kDa, active against P.brassicae and inactive towards S.littoralis, this gene having been cloned in the recombinant plasmid pHTA2.
In an embodiment of the preceding procedure, the fragment recombined with the vector in the cloning step is elaborated from a HindIII-PstI restriction fragment derived from a single strain of B.thuringiensis, preferably aizawai 7-29. In particular, this fragment is carried preferentially by the recombinant plasmid pHTA6 such as isolated with the aid of a probe constituted by a PvuII fragment of 2 kb of the plasmid pBT15-88 corresponding to the internal part of a gene for the chromosomal crystal of the strain berliner 1715, starting from transforming clones containing nucleotide sequences derived from B.thuringiensis strains active against larvae of Lepidoptera, inter-alia of S.littoralis. 
In another embodiment of the invention, the fragment recombined with the vector in the cloning step is elaborated from several sequences of nucleotides derived from recombinant vectors containing sequences of nucleotides from at least two different strains of B.thuringiensis, possessing the same restriction maps and themselves containing all or part of the sequences of nucleotides capable of coding for a polypeptide active, in a preferential manner, against S.littoralis. 
In this case, the recombined fragment used in the cloning step is a fragment of about 3 kb, advantageously elaborated from a HindIII-HincII restriction fragment of about 1.1 kb derived from the entomocidus 6-01 strain and a HincII-PstI fragment of about 1.9 kb from the aizawai 7-29 strain. It corresponds to a truncated gene for xcex4-endotoxin.
The HindIII-HincII and HincII-PstI restriction fragments are carried more especially by the respective recombinant plasmids pHTE6 and pHTA6 such as isolated with the aid of the probe constituted by the PvuII fragment mentioned above.
The study of the toxicity towards the larvae of Lepidoptera of the bacterial strains modified with the aid of the sequences of nucleotides defined above, has made it possible to demonstrate their high toxic activity, in particular with regard to the caterpillars of S.littoralis. 
This activity was estimated from the point of view of the specificity index corresponding to the ratio
LC50 S.littoralis/LC50 P.brassicae
in which xe2x80x9cLC50xe2x80x9d represents the lethal concentration killing 50% of the larvae in 72 hours.
The utilization of such an index makes it possible to evaluate the activity of the bacterial strains studied without having to consider the level of expression of the polypeptides.
The results obtained, which are reported in the examples which follow, and the values of LD50 which are deduced from them, have shown that the bacterial strains modified according to the invention show a more specific toxic activity towards S.littoralis than the native crystal proteins of the strains aizawai 7-29 or berliner 1715.
Therefore, the invention relates to the use of these modified strains, of recombinant vectors containing the nucleotide sequences defined above, in particular the plasmid pHT671 and the plasmid pHT71, and these sequences themselves for the elaboration of larvicidal compositions preferentially toxic towards S.littoralis. 
The larvicidal compositions of the invention are thus characterized in that they contain an efficaceous quantity of polypeptides such as defined above or expressed by the nucleotide sequences mentioned above.
In order to produce these polypeptides the truncated genes for xcex4-endotoxin corresponding to the nucleotide sequences of the invention are advantageously implemented.
These genes can be used to produce in excess the toxic polypeptide in microorganisms permitting the expression of the above recombinant vectors. Suitable strains of microorganisms include E.coli or also B.subtilis. 
These truncated genes may be reintroduced into the strains of B.thuringiensis or into related species such as B.cereus, according to the standard techniques, for example, by transformation, conjugation or transduction. These techniques make it possible to produce the toxic polypeptide in large quantity without first having to modify the natural region of the promoter for the xcex4-endotoxin genes of B.thuringiensis. 
This transformation may be carried out by using methods derived from the transformation of the protoplasts of B.subtilis according to (11) or of the vegetative cells of B.thuringiensis as described in (12).
The introduction of recombinant plasmids by a system of the conjugation type may be carried out by using B.thuringiensis as host strain and B.subtilis or Streptococcus faecalis as strains of the donor type by operating according to (13) and (14).
As a variant, the sequences of nucleotides are introduced into microorganisms living in the environment or in association with the plants and capable of expressing recombinant vectors containing these sequences. The introduction may be carried out in microorganisms such as Pseudomonas by working according to the procedure described in (17), by the intermediary of plasmid vectors containing the transposon Tn5 and the gene for the toxin, or Azospirillum or Rhizobium by means of the intermediary of suicide vectors derived from the plasmid RP4 and of mobilizing plasmids functional in Gram negative bacteria (for example, pRK2013) according to the procedures described in (18).
The truncated genes are alone in the strains of Bacilli or, as a variant, are associated with different xcex4-endotoxin genes which makes it possible to obtain crystals synthesized by these strains specifically toxic towards given species of Noctuidae, or toxic both towards the Noctuidae and insects sensitive to other xcex4-endotoxins. These recombinations, carried out in vitro or in vivo with the nucleotide sequences of the invention and other xcex4-endotoxin genes showing different toxic specificities, lead to the construction of new genes coding for novel hybrid toxic proteins exhibiting a large spectrum of activity towards insects. These new genes and these novel proteins also enter into the framework of the invention.
In these applications, the nucleotide sequences of the invention may be transferred and expressed in plants sensitive to S.littoralis in order to diminish the devastation caused by these insects.
Among the plants to be protected, mention should be made of: cotton, clover, the tomatoe and alfalfa.
The transfer of the truncated gene into cotton plants may be carried out by transformation involving strains such as Agrobacterium as described in (15).
In addition, the invention relates to the plant cells, the plants and the seeds containing the nucleotide sequences defined above.
The plant cells according to the invention are cells, the genome of which after transformation by a non-essentially biological procedure possesses in a stable manner a sequence of nucleotides capable of expressing a polypeptide toxic towards S.littoralis, such as that defined above. The invention also relates to the plant cells derived from their division.
The plants according to the invention are plants transformed by a non-essentially biological procedure, having in particular as predator S.littoralis, the genome of which possesses in a stable manner a sequence of nucleotides such as that defined above, capable of expressing a polypeptide toxic towards S.littoralis. The plants in question are also plants derived from their reproduction, their multiplication or hybrid crosses.
In accordance with another feature, the invention relates to plants having in particular as predator S.littoralis, possessing in addition to their initial phenotypic and genotypic characters the property of expressing a polypeptide toxic preferentially towards S.littoralis, this property resulting from the insertion in their genome by means of genetic manipulation of a sequence of nucleotides capable of expressing the said polypeptide.
In addition, the invention relates to seeds capable of giving rise to a plant such as that defined above or derived from such a plant, characterized in that they have integrated into their genome by genetic manipulation a nucleotide sequence described above.